Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was receiving money from exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and used it in a bid to separate the Caucasus from Russia for the benefit of the U.S. and the UK, investigative materials announced Tuesday in the Chechen Supreme Court, the Izvestia newspaper revealed. | Really? I did not know that. |
Separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, killed in March, said Basayev was cooperating with the West and had abandoned the idea of an independent Chechnya. Maskhadov himself preferred to cooperate with Russia rather than turn to the West, one of his fellow militants, Vakhit Murdashev, told the investigation.
âMaskhadov thought the U.S. was more dangerous than Russia and it was decided to come to an agreement with Russia at all costs,â says a statement from the North Ossetian investigator who worked with Murdashev. âThe statement touches upon the subject of the American and British interest in Chechnya and the North Caucasus,â Murdashevâs lawyer Bayali Elmurzayev told Izvestia.
âAccording to the statement, Aslan Maskhadov suspected that Basayev, funded by Berezovsky, could abandon the independence of Chechnya and start working to alienate the Caucasus from Russia.â | And he's done a bang-up job of it too. |
Aslan Maskhadov and four of his associates were seized near Grozny in March 2005. Maskhadov was killed in the operation, while the four militants are now on trial for participating in a gang and illegally keeping weapons. |